With campaigns and debates kicking off a full 18 months ahead of the next US presidential election, American voters are getting tired of the race already, polls and observers suggest.
Even President George W. Bush seems to have lost interest in who may succeed him, with a spokeswoman saying that he did not tune in to Thursday evening's debate between the 10 of his fellow Republicans vying for their party's nomination.
"With nearly nine months to go before the first presidential primary, many voters are showing early signs of campaign fatigue," said a recent report by the Pew Research Center.
More than half of US voters, 52 percent, judged the campaign "dull," and nearly two-thirds thought the early-starting campaign period is "too long," the pollster said.
Months before any official contenders are selected, let alone any presidential votes cast, the candidates have been filling the news pages and airwaves with hundreds of meetings held across the country and particularly with coverage of their record-breaking campaign fundraising.
The six leading candidates -- top fundraiser Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards on the Democrats' side, and Rudolph Guliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney for the Republicans -- have racked up more than 100 million dollars between them.
But the flood of publicity generated so early on as the hopefuls crammed their war chests may rebound on them later in the contest, some observers warn.
"Candidates have been running so long already it opens up opportunities for late entries," said blogger Glenn Reynolds on the website instapundit.com. "We may not like it, but voter boredom may now be a driver of politics."
Kevin Keane, an advisor to Tommy Thompson, one of the lower-ranking contenders on the Republican side, is convinced that voter fatigue will come into play -- and hopes it will favor a late surge by his candidate.
"Absolutely -- we're counting on it," he said. "And the longer the campaign goes on, people will have more opportunity to see that Tommy Thompson is a viable candidate."
As for the Democrat favorites Clinton and Obama, the two rivals risk mutual destruction in a tight race which could leave an opening for former vice-president Al Gore to make a late bid, said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University in the capital.
Bill Simon, policy director on the campaign of New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- currently the leading Republican candidate -- told AFP he was giving "a lot" of thought to the threat of voter fatigue.
"Clearly the campaign has gotten off to an early start, and the pace has been very frenetic," he said. "Whether that pace is maintained we'll have to see. I suspect it will cool off a bit over the summer, but then it will pick up again in the fall."
Another Republican hopeful, the former senator Fred Thompson who is now known as an actor in the television series "New York District," threatens to gain an edge by actually avoiding the already crowded field.
"He is running a remarkably smart non-campaign," said Republican Senator Lamar Alexander ahead of Thursday's Republican debate.
"Here we have 10 candidates coming to the Reagan Library (in California) tonight, and he's getting about as much attention as all of them put together by not going ... he's having his own media event tomorrow night."
Thompson was pegged equally with Senator John McCain for the Republican nomination in a poll published Tuesday, although he has not yet officially announced his intention to run.
